Trust me, you won't feel ambivalent when you leave the theater! Next to "The Empire Strikes Back," this film is among the best in the franchise.

imo Empire was the best (right up until Luke-I-am-your-father, which set up the subsequent redemption of Darth Vader...puhleeze) (if you are going to draw on The Man With A Thousand Faces mythology stuff, you don't get to wimp out like that)

Anyway. Episodes VI, I,II,III are SO awful (only saw VI once, and quit early in I--two of my favorite actors masquerading as blocks of wood was more than I could take) I all but gave up and only saw Force Awakens in a fit of nostalgia. But it was acceptable, and so was Rogue One...good to hear this is better.

I'll see it when the crowds abate.

- The first chapter is cheesy and stupid.
- If only people would talk to each other...
- The chapters about Rey and the final chapters were best.

And all scenes involving lightsabers (in and out of combat) are just beautifully choreographed.

Disclaimer: I'm not a Star Wars fan, and haven't seen anything after a free showing of the Phantom Menace.

The professional reviews are glowing, something like 96% positive on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience reviews and comments on e.g. the Guardian, show a sharp divide ranging from positive to utter loathing. The audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes scored a franchise low 56%.

I confess that one of my guilty pleasures is reading 1 star reviews of films I don't particularly care for, but I've never seen such a chasm before. Go to imdb, and you see virtually nothing but scathing 1 star reviews. Some, no doubt, are fanboys who fell in love with the franchise when they were kids and didn't realise before that the world-building and stories were always paper-thin and make-it-up-as-you-go to begin with. No doubt others are trolls who like to piss on anything popular, but that can't explain all of it.

Maybe it's a sign of the times, and how angry everybody is these days. Anyway, as a uninvolved bystander I'm rather enjoying reading the reactions.